Strung Out In Heaven's High
by Miss Kass
Summary: Kahle tried to avoid the word 'love' when it came to girls. However, it was hard to deny the spark he found with a girl who couldn’t tie cherry stems with her tongue. Written for two friends of mine: original characters only.


**Notes:** Inspired by David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes". Well, part of it. There isn't a drug party in space in this fic. I suppose there could be if you read hard enough, but you'd probably have to be reading a book about drug parties in space really hard for that to happen.

**Kahle Khu belongs to Candace **(who I know very little about, only that she's made of fantastic and awesome and is friends with Sarah, which ultimately makes her better than most people).

**Hikari Taka belongs to Sarah** (who cannot be described by mere words).

**Avatar belongs to those people that had the idea for Avatar **(who are certainly amazing).

--

"_I'm happy."_

Kahle had never met a girl like Hikari before.

When he first came across her, stuck in a tree and dolled up like some kind of nun, he would never have believed that she had such fight in her. And then when she had fought him, when they had sparred across that field for hours and both had ridiculously purpling bruises across their bodies, he would never have believed that she could be the sweetheart that she so clearly was.

But, when he thought about it, that wasn't what made her unique.

He also noted that it wasn't the fact that she got alarmingly free under the influence of cactus juice either, though that was highly entertaining. Or that she could put his air bending skills to shame with a single wave of her hand, though that was definitely impressive.

No, it was the fact that he actually made her love. And while he knew that that was possibly the most clichéd thought in the world, he also knew that it was utterly true any time he was around her.

Before Hikari, when Kahle saw other girls, he'd see them as something to be toyed with. Oh, he'd make them happy, and he'd call them the names they wanted, and he'd go out in public and be the adorable doting boyfriend, but there was never that glimmer of charm that he wanted. He could never find that little spark that all the old love stories spoke of, however hard he tried.

But with Hikari, it was like something had clicked on the day they met. It didn't matter that she injured him both with her attitude and her airbending, he felt compelled to talk to her, and to engage her like the elegant creature she was.

It was that love that had brought Kahle to the Inn that he and Hikari were currently sitting in, where he was still trying to teach her to tie cherry stems into a knot, and she was failing quite spectacularly.

"Oh, come on, it's really not that hard." Kahle grinned at her, waving his hand proudly over his own collection of knotted stems. "Think of it like air bending. Your hand does this, and the wind moves that way," he demonstrated as he spoke, making the cherry stems wobble in the breeze.

Hikari groaned in frustration. "No, Kahle, it's not like air bending. When I bend air, it heeds what I say. These… things," she glared at the stems, "do not." She pushed the bowl away and crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. "It's not often that you'll get to see me utterly give up, but here's one of those times."

Kahle swiped the bowl from her, picking out cherries and pulling the fruit away from the stem. "Fine," he sighed dramatically, popping a cherry in his mouth. "I'll just sit here for the rest of the night and flaunt my stem-tying tongue at you."

_No!_ Hikari glared at him and got to her feet, pulling on his hand. "Oh, no, we're leaving. I'm sure you can find something else to do with your tongue than tie cherry stems."

Blinded by the frustration, Hikari didn't even notice that what she had said was suggestive, but Kahle definitely had noticed, and replied by smacking her on the butt. "You've got something better for me to be doing with my tongue, hm? I like the sounds of that."

Jumping forward when his hand made contact with her rear, Hikari spun around to face Kahle. "You think that's funny? _I_ think it's harassment! And another thing…" But instead of listening to her sudden barrage of abuse (which wasn't exactly an uncommon thing from one Hikari Taka), Kahle felt for the spark. He knew that if he found it, it wouldn't matter what she said, or what she did, or how badly she tied cherry stems with her tongue; there would be nothing else.

Then, when he found it, hidden beneath the wind that filled his air bending heart, he grabbed her by the shoulders, pushed her against the wall of the Inn (which was, luckily, relatively devoid of people) and kissed her.

Hikari was shocked into silence, but then (not surprisingly) dissolved into the kiss. It wasn't an irregular occurrence, to be sure, but Kahle always had such passion for Hikari and her obsession with clothing and her manic mood swings and her complete inability to tie those stems… and so she always found it hard to let him go.

Because however harshly Hikari spoke of Kahle at times, they both knew that there could never be anyone else that could remotely live up to that spark that each created for the other.

"_I hope you're happy too."_


End file.
